EDWARDS PREPARES FOR TESTS LOCAL WORK ON AIRBORNE LASER CANNON TO BEGIN LATER THIS YEAR.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - The $1.3 billion airborne laser program has reached a milestone that moves it a step closer to beginning tests at Edwards Air Force Base.

With completion of modifications, the Boeing 747F-400 cargo jet equipped to carry a anti-missile laser cannon will go through airworthiness tests this summer in Kansas before it is delivered to Edwards later this year.

The Edwards testing will include ground testing of the laser system as well as tests in flight of various systems, including the craft's ability to track targets.

The highlight of the testing will be an attempt to shoot down a Scud-like missile in late 2004.

``At Edwards, sophisticated laser equipment developed by teammates Lockheed Martin and TRW will be installed prior to missile shoot-down demonstrations,'' Boeing, the program's leading contractor, said in a statement announcing the completion of aircraft modification.

During combat, airborne laser aircraft would patrol in pairs at more than 40,000 feet inside friendly territory, scanning the horizon for missiles.

When a missile is detected, a tracking laser beam would illuminate it, and computers would measure the distance and calculate its course and direction.

A second laser, fired in a three- to five-second burst from the nose turret, is meant to destroy the missile while it's still over enemy territory. The laser's beam will be about the diameter of a basketball.

The high-energy laser will be fueled by the same chemicals found in hair bleach and Drano - hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide. Those chemicals will be combined with chlorine gas and water.

Unlike the colorful lasers depicted in science fiction shows, the Air Force laser's beam will be invisible to the human eye.

Some 36,000 parts were installed in the 747 so it can ultimately accept the heart of the system - the high-energy laser - when it is installed later at Edwards, program officials said.

Air Force officials also announced the successful test-firing of the first of six laser modules the aircraft will use to create the laser beam. The testing is taking place at a laboratory in Orange County.

The airborne laser team at Edwards will assemble the five additional laser modules, join them with the first module, then perform a ground-based demonstration of the integrated high-energy laser that will fly on the first aircraft.

To accommodate the program, the Air Force has spent $22 million to build laboratories at Edwards, including a facility capable of simulating conditions for weapons firing at 40,000 feet above Earth.

The plane will be based at Edwards, but the airborne laser tests will be conducted over the Pacific Ocean and possibly over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Boeing is the project's team leader and is responsible for developing the surveillance battle-management system, integrating the weapon system and supplying the modified aircraft.

TRW is providing the complete chemical oxygen-iodine laser system. Lockheed Martin is developing the beam control/fire control system, which will acquire the target, then accurately point and fire the laser.

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Photo:

(color) An Air Force illustration shows how a laser mounted in the nose of a 747 airplane would shoot down an enemy ballistic missile. Crews at Edwards Air Force Base will test the laser canon beginning later this year.